Barrington's power swept up in strong winds

BARRINGTON — Strong winds swirled up headaches for drivers and emergency crews after several trees fell into power lines, cutting power to one-third of the town.

Most municipal buildings — including the police and fire headquarters on Province Lane — and a cluster of homes and businesses around Calef's Crossing, were affected.

Outages began shortly after 2 p.m. Power was restored to most of the town by 7 p.m.

Barrington was one of a host of communities that experienced power disruptions. Winds gusting at 40 mph were responsible for knocking out power to 14,000 Public Service of New Hampshire customers and 4,000 New Hampshire Electric Co-Op customers — mostly in the central and southwestern parts of the state. The wind was responsible for brush fires in Bow and Dover.

About 5,000 Central Maine Power customers in York County lost power; most were in York, Eliot, and the Berwicks.

The hardest-hit Granite State towns were Barnstead and Alton, as power was knocked out to about half of PSNH customers in both towns.

Power was expected to be back online for most customers by late Thursday.

During the afternoon rush hour in Barrington, traffic lights didn't work at Calef's Crossing, which marks the intersection of Routes 9 and 125. Drivers had to be careful and take turns crossing the intersection; no accidents were reported. The lights were back online by 8 p.m.

A section of Route 9 at the Route 126 intersection was closed for a few hours as crews untangled a tree from a set of power lines.

A few miles away on Route 125 near Calef's Crossing, two trees that measured at least 75 feet were blown into the same set of power lines. Crews closed one lane to remove them.

"It's just a pain," said Fire Chief Rick Walker, who estimated a half-dozen trees were tangled in wires across the town.

All of them were expected to be removed by Thursday night, he said.

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